The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-05-04
Charles Reade's Estimate of Women.

The papers have lately been publish
ing extracts from the diary or journal |
of Mr.. Charles Reade, the famous En-
glish novelist His works have had a
wide circulation in this country, and by |
these he is very well known as a writer.
L" Never Too Late to Mend" " Hard |
Cash, " Foul Play" A Simpleton "
and L" Griffith Gaunt " Ohe publication
of which in the atlantic Monthly evoked |
a good deal of adverse criticism) being, |
perhaps, his best known works. What
ever else may be said of his writings,
he was never dull, and the interest in his
books never tagged from the first page
to the last This extract gives another
side-light to his character and opinions,
and we print with it the comments of
the Boston Herald on the extract and
its analysis of his opinions and character.
But there is another view of the case,
as it occurs to us. What would have
been Charles Reade's entry in his
journal if, instead of dining with the
actor and author, and others of his set
brilliant, talented men like himself,
not one in ten, as the Herald classes
the women, who would not prove
hampers on good talk, but one of an
hundred or thousand among men for
talent and brilliancy-he had dined with
the same number of men taken from
the great mass of men, the nine-tenths
of men? We opine his confidential
friend, his journal, would have shown
an entry quite as uncomplimentary.
Woman's sphere of life and action
bring her in contact with line of
duties and range of thought entirely
different from that of men, and when
women meet and discuss these matters
there is no lack of interest or intelli-
gence. To be sure there is the class
of society women whose society theme
of conversation is most vapid and
trashy. But is not the same true of the
society young man?
But if it were quite true that women
" fail to follow beyond a certain con-
ventional range. have seen, observed
and experienced too little to make any
real contribution to what is going on"
as the Herald says, have those eX-
ceptional women who can hold their
own in social, literary, political and
aesthetic talk, who have observed and
experienced so much, been those whose
characters, qualities of mind and soul
and lives have endeared them to the
circle in which they lived and moved?
We recall to mind examples which we
believe were quite the contrary.
Very possibly the woman who would
have been Mr.. Reade's ideal woman
may not have been one of those who
would have been welcomed at a dinner
table. Mr.. Thackeray, in recently
published letter, gives hint of this
when he says: /" l am afraid / don't
respect your sex enough. Yes, do,
when they are occupied with loving and
sentiment rather than with other bust
ness of life" We think it true that
though such exceptionally brilliant
women may challenge admiration for
their talents and requirements, these
are not the qualities which most endear
the sex TO the generality of mankind.
To those who lack the qualities which
would have made them welcome table
companions with Charles Reade let us
say, there are other lovable qualities
which will last longer and shine brighter
than those-that sweetness of character
which brings woman as near to saint
as one can come on earth. Her
children shall rise up and call her
blessed; her memory will be pleasure
and live with reverence not in her chill
dren only, but in all who knew her.
A day or two ago the Herald gave several
quotations from the recently published jour
nal of Charles Reade, the English novelist.
One of them, which certainly had shock
ingly ungallant sound, ran as follows:
Dined with Boucicault. A pleasant din
ner-as it always is when there are no ladies
to confine the conversation within their
own narrow bounds" Now, if Charles
Reade had been simply coarse man. or a
man awkward and i'll at ease in society, this
congratulatory entry in his journal would
have had little significance worth comment
ing on. But he was neither He was a
man fond of witty, intellectual wide-rang-
ing talk, and the presence of women, he
thought, tended to kill the possibility OF
this by reducing everything to a narrow,
commonplace level. In other words, he
confded to the privacy of his notebook a
personal conviction which thousands of men
thoroughly share with him. Now certainly
if widespread feeling of this kind exists
it had far better be openly avowed and can
didly discussed, for it has most important
bearing on the whole modern woman ques
ton. Little will be gained by angry filings
to the effect that bright men do not enjoy
the presence of bright women, who can hold
their own in social, literary, political and
aesthetic talk. just the contrary is true
Sex tells here as elsewhere. There is 9
stimulus and flavor always impaired by the